by chappy 46 Replies latest jw friends
No, I never have such thoughts. I am one of the lucky people who had a non-JW childhood, so I had a concept of what normal life should be.
I've been free for 22 years, and am happier every day for it!
Regards,
Mum
Seize the day, and put the least possible trust in tomorrow. - Horace
I have learned to live each day as it comes and not to borrow trouble by dreading tomorrow. - Dorothy Dix
I did think "what if they are right?" for many years. Now, mind you, my family had been officially inactive since I was 10. Those images of death and destruction are powerful to a kid. I carried those images well into my 20's.
Then, as time passed, I realized that it's all BULL. When I began to actually think about some of the teachings with a reasoned and dispassionate view, how absurd it all seemed to me.
I mean, come on!! One is toast because they celebrate their birthdays? Celebrate X-mas? Don't do enough hours out in service? Associate with someone who doesn't share one's view? Wear a beard?
What kind of nonsense is that?
As for right now. My views have been further illuminated by all the hard work from many of the posters here. So, any doubts that might have still had a hint of smoke smoldering, have been thoroughly extinguished.
Andee
Well, when I first recognized serious errors in some JW beliefs and policies, I thought that the organization could be reformed. I gave up on that after a few months. Then when I quit JWs and tried to be a regular ol' Christian believer, I couldn't accept the eternal conscious punishment of the soul teaching, but I did occasionally have that nagging "what if the FUNDIES are right?" every now and then. Anyone else have that experience?
Although I was never baptised, I have a background similar to that of a JW kid. My parents were SA officers and I spent the first 16 years attending the church 5 times a week and being told that "the time is now, get saved before you are run over by a car and spend eternity in hell." That can make a big impression on a child.
After leaving the SA the JW's "found" me and reiterated that if I wasn't following a certain set of rules that I'd be destroyed and because of my earlier indoctrination in the bible I believed them and studied on and off with them for 10 years.
YES - when the twin towers came down I thought OMG this is it I better start being good before God strikes me with a bolt of lighting. (Althought I wouldn't say my life is particularly evil.) I can see why they believe this is the end cos of all the mad stuff that is occurring. BUT if you are a student of history you can see that if you had a time machine and went back and questioned lots of people from lots of different times across the planet that they thought the same thing as the JW's do eg. The plague and the Great Fire of London. People thought that was the end and went to some very desperate measures to persuade people that it was.
In the whole picture of the universe, anything is possible, so the JW's may be right BUT if what is in the bible is remotely true, God is not gonna pulverise you just because you asked questions and wanted some sort of understanding other than what a bunch of fundamentalists say. This is also good for JW's cos he will hopefully forgive them too. I suppose some might think the "blasphemous" part of my argument is - would I really want to spend eternity in a world that the only people are JW's and in which let's face it we've got a 1,000 years to prove ourselves and even then we might fail. I personally have decided to take my chances and listen to evidence of the Universe.
Part of the reason all of us want subscribe to religions is self-preservation and it's natural to want to believe that someone, somewhere has the answers. If we're gonna look at things in a logical and scientific way, religion started for some reason so somewhere amongst it all there are smatterings of truth.
A small child right now in Afghanistan is being told right now that Allah is their god and if they don't do this or don't do that they will be punished by Allah as are children globally of other religions. I believe that this is called Mind Virus. It would be just as hard for that Taliban member to realise that they are wrong and when and if they did leave would spend the rest of their lives wondering if Allah is gone strike them dead. But you can't live the rest of you life wondering. You have to make your peace with God (which is fact yourself) and do what you can while you are here. The fact is that a lot of religions do not let you do the best for yourself and the people around you and that is why you CAN rest assure that they are not right.
My latest pieces of evidence are this:
I watched the video that the JW's have made called Jehovah's Witnesses the people behind the Organisation (I think). In it the narrator said, from Bethel millions of publications have been published that have changed the minds, hearts and PERSONALITIES of millions. Hmmm.
And secondly the JW lady that still visits me refused to acknowledge that religion is all about Faith. She recently told me that Faith plays no part in her understanding of what the JW's are about. Hmmm again. To quote the the bible that the JW's use, it is Faith, Hope and Charity that are the most important things that exist. Faith that we are making the right decisions about our actions towards ourselves and others, Hope that we haven't fucked up and will find the answers to all this stuff when we pop our clogs and the Charity to allow the JW's and other to bleat on about prophecies and understand that they are just as confused as rest of us parasites that are occupying this beautiful planet.
Best wishes
Spacegirl
I BATTLE WITH THE THOUGHT THAT JW'S ARE RIGHT.I WAS RAISED A JW.AND JUST LEFT IN MARCH 2001.I CELEBRATED MY "FIRST" BIRTHDAY AT AGE 32.ALL DAY I WAS AFRAID THAT JEHOVAH WAS GOING TO KILL ME FOR IT.I WAS SO SCARED.I JUST KEPT REMINDING MYSELF THAT GOD HAS BETTER THINGS TO DO WITH HIS TIME THEN PLOT MY DEATH.
Plotting your death is a full time job for God. He will hold you responsible for an eternity based on what you do with your 70-80 living years on earth. Celebrating a birthday makes his job really easy.
Chappy, I don't have that thought at all. I think I may have done in the beginning but what I've seen since I left, with my JW family and their lack of love and natural affection for each other has demonstrated to me what they are really like. After Sept 11th, I thought things were looking like the long talked about "end time", but my thoughts were still, that if JWs have the truth, I would totally prefer to be dead! I would not want to live for eternity with that bunch of phonies! Any God who sets up a system like the JW must have rocks in his head!
Marilyn
Hey Chappy,WTBTS has absolutly no problem in lying to anyone,anywere,any time and much of it is documented.I dont believe a word that comes out of their mouths.So,am I afraid of"What if they were right?"They are liars and they haven`t been right in 125 years.Theres nothing too be afraid of!They`ve never been right!And they lie!...OUTLAW
Yes,I thought I was done with he JW thing and felt strong and confident but after September 11th I got so shook up I started to wonder, "what if?" I went as far as going to a kingdom hall the one for my local area about 5 miles from my old hall (I had moved since I stopped attending meetings 3 years ago). I still knew quite a few of the people there. I was very nervous about going I thought that I might break down or realize I had been living in denial of the truth, I don't know I was expecting at least some powerful emotion. The result: At first I felt incredibly sad realizing that if this was the truth I would have to bring my happy children to this "place". People were friendly but the meeting was boring and very shallow. It was like a time warp, same old same old. I felt nothing except a sense of releif that I was out of this nightmare. Going back to the hall was the best thing I ever did I now have closure and a greater sense of peace than ever before. It was so bad that when I thought of having to raise my children this way (boring meetings, judgemental attitudes,giving up activities they enjoy) I actually thought no way, I would rather they live happily on earth for a little while than have to go through this MINDF_ _ _!( This from a woman who rarely uses profanity but the thought was screaming in my mind.)
Hungry, I agree with your observations. I too went back several times (not after the 11th) and I feel the same way....it's all very sterile and boring. There is no fire in them anymore.
Even IF they were a good people, I may have left. Even Good people without zeal are rather pointless.
ashi
